The industry’s most innovative people 2024 Celia Merzbacher


Organisation: SRI International Role: QED-C Executive Director


Celia Merzbacher is the Executive Director of the Quantum Economic Development Consortium (QED-C), an influential group of stakeholders that aims to enable and grow the quantum industry. Merzbacher testified before the US


Congress Committee on Science, Space and Technology in June 2023 on ‘Advancing American Leadership in Quantum Technology’. In her testimony, she identified gaps in quantum-enabling technologies, which included laser technologies, single- photon sources and detectors and photonic integrated circuits (PICs) and recommended that addressing those gaps become a focus of


Chris Cole


Organisation: Parallax Group Role: Principal Consultant


Cole is celebrated for his roles in the development of 10G, 40G, 100G, 200G and 400G optical interfaces. At Big Bear Networks, he led the development of 10G 100km single-mode fibre (SMF) and 10G 220m multi-mode fibre (MMF) transceivers, which were industry-first optical transceivers using adaptive equalisation. There, and later at Finisar, he led the development of industry-first 40G serial client transceivers, used in all initial 40G deployments. Cole then led the standardisation and


product development of 40G optical ethernet and OTN interfaces based on his proposed


Based in: California, US


Education: MSc, Massachusetts Institute of Technology


4x10G architecture. Among his other achievements, he led the standardisation and product development of 100G optical ethernet and OTN interfaces, founded the CFP multi-source agreement (MSA), and developed the first specifications, drove the standardisation, and promoted industry adoption of CFP, CFP2, and CFP4 100G form factors. An Optica Fellow, Cole is now an independent consultant, advising several start-ups in the optical datacom space. He was OFC 2023’s General Co-Chair, which makes his 2024 nomination to the Photonics100 especially timely.


Dan Sykora


Organisation: Jenoptik Optical Systems Role: Vice President of Engineering


The Vice-President of Engineering at Jenoptik Optical Systems, Sykora is developing metrology solutions for current and next-generation AR/VR displays. He envisions these holographic display technologies will create immersive AR environments that blend real and virtual objects and change how we work, play, and learn in the years ahead. Sykora is also investigating how to qualify multi-focal tunable optics in AR/VR headsets to enhance visual comfort and address user fatigue. His biggest research priority in the coming


Based in: Jupiter, Florida, US Education: PhD, Optics, University of Rochester


year is exploring the benefit of introducing AI machine learning techniques “to train and solve for iterative compensation techniques to achieve a fully optimised high-precision lens assembly”. Talking about challenges in the field,


Sykora says: “Increasing import/export regulations in the US are straining the supply chain needed to support optical instruments. As a result, we are seeing steadily increasing costs and increased delivery times that compete against an expected and familiar pace of development.”


Based in: Arlington, Virginia, US Education: PhD, Penn State


the next phase of the US's National Quantum Initiative. Previously, Merzbacher has been Assistant Director for Technology R&D in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where she oversaw the establishment and coordination of the National Nanotechnology Initiative. More recently, she has been announced as the US Co-Chair of the Quad Investors Network’s Quantum Center of Excellence, where she looks forward to promoting quantum technologies for economic and societal applications in the quad countries (USA, Australia, India and Japan) and worldwide.


18 Photonics100 2024


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